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Goodbye, John Russo

As you know, last Friday was John Russo’s last day as the City Attorney of Oakland. His plan to roll out a series of gang injunctions across Oakland was met with strong, well organized opposition and a firestorm of controversy. Unable to take the heat, Russo is moving on to take a position as City Manager for Alameda. As Russo and OPD chief Anthony Batts seemed to be the only genuine proponents of the gang injunctions, Russo’s resignation signals a major victory in the fight against the use of injunctions in our city.

Our work together to build a broad, diverse, dynamic movement against gang injunctions helped apply pressure to Russo and the City Attorney’s office, exposed their wasteful use of city resources during tight economic times, and ensured that the voices of people across Oakland were heard.

We know this fight is much bigger than any one person. And the fight against the implementation of the pending injunction in the Fruitvale and the temporary injunction in North Oakland continues. We need to keep up the opposition to the injunctions even as we continue to demonstrate ways of building the kind of neighborhood safety that really works in the long term. As we take a moment to celebrate the tremendous victories we have already won, as we move into the next phase of this struggle for self-determination, our commitment and solidarity are more important than ever.

We’re including the following video to remind ourselves why we’re happy to say goodbye to John Russo: